Saturday 31 December 2016

Dragonfly Birthday

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! I hope you are enjoying the holidays and that the weather is treating you well. Here in Melbourne, we had some heavy rain to end a steamy, humid week and many people were caught out on the road and had backyards and some even their homes flooded. I was lucky and only had water lapping at the back door and not inside.

In the week before Christmas we had a trip into town to see the Nutcracker Ballet with my lovely friend Katerina and her daughter Miss N - and it was a good time to pass on a card and small gift for Katerina's Birthday on Christmas Eve.


The card is a CASE from the Stampin Success Magazine - I loved the effect and changed the orientation of the card but kept the general idea. An Aquapainter on Watercolor paper was used to colour the butterfly and for the background, used the lid of the Aquapainter to help me flick on some colour. Then added plenty of Wink of Stella to cover the die cut Dragoanfly.


Card stock: Dapper Denim, Whisper White, Watercolor Paper, Soft Sky
Ink: Dapper Denim, Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral
Stamps: Dragonfly Dreams
Accessories: Big Shot, Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits, Aquapainter, Wink of Stella, Brights Enamel Shapes

And I also made this cute little gift bag to hold a gift voucher I made for her too. It uses the same stamp set for the sentiment and the Blooms and Bliss DSP for the bag itself.


Underneath the shortened Hello Lovely layer, is where the gift tag is. There are three layers and the
the bow and handle keeps them all together.

Card stock: Soft Sky
Designer Series Paper: Blooms and Bliss
Ink: Dapper Denim
Stamps: Dragonfly Dreams
Accessories: Big Shot, Mini Treat Bag Framelits, PL Hello Lovely Card Collection, Bakers Twine Trio Pack (Gold)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you all have a very Happy New Year and that 2017 is a wonderful year for you and all your family!

Happy stamping until next year :-)

Jan

Tuesday 27 December 2016

Meowy Woofmas - a Case


Happy Christmas to you!!I hope that you all had a wonderful day with family and friends and are  enjoying this often relaxing Boxing Day. I had a lovely day shared with friends - lovely company, beautiful food and spoilt as always - Sally included! We have been saying for months that Summer has been hiding - but she came out in full force for Christmas Day - 37 degrees! A total scorcher!

 So with the rush all over (unless you're braving the shops today) it's time to share the last and possibly the year's cutest Christmas card :-) I saw this by Laura Bassen and knew it would be perfect for some of our doggie friends. And as such, why meddle with perfection and so it became a rather rare CASE. I am still learning Copic colouring so it was a great reason for some practice and also the background is created using my new Distress Inks.



We made a couple of these -  for one of our park friends and family and the other to accompany our annual hamper for the Vet Referral Hospital in Hallam as Sally's  Specialist and team have always been so very generous to both of us.

For the occasion, Miss Sally was dressed in her Elf costume, and to save time, we decided to do this at the Park after her walk so she could still roll in the grass beforehand. In theory this was a good idea. But in practice it was very costly as I tool my mobile phone out of my pocket and put it on the grass... a toddler with Grandad in tow wanting to give her a pat was enough of a distraction and we left the park without it. Suffice to say it was stolen and so...a new phone was needed and quickly as it was the Friday before Christmas! However the staff at the Clinic were very happy to see her and made a lovely fuss of her :-)
UPDATE: It turns out my hairdresser called me shortly after I'd left the park and "got some guy who found your phone in a park". Anthony then made the huge effort to pick it up and contact me via Facebook to return it. And with Apple's "cooling off" policy, I was able to return the new phone too.
So nice to have a good new story at Christmas :-) Taking a cake into the salon was the least I could do!


Card stock: Water color paper, Whisper White Thick and standard
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black ,
Accessories: Big Shot,  Brights Enamel Shapes

Non SU:
Stamp: Meowy Woofmas (Mama Elephant),
Accessories: Copic Markers, ME  Co-ordinating Creative cuts, Glossy Accents


This is what the fuss was all about - she didn't mind wearing it except for the hat :-)

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you are enjoying spending time with friends and family over the holidays.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan


Friday 23 December 2016

Neutral Noel for JAI #342

Hello and welcome to the last Friday before Christmas for 2016! Time has flown and Christmas and the end of the year are almost here. The decorations are up and blinking and the carols have been playing. It really is my favourite time of year even though this year the timing has caught me somewhat by surprise and I am not as ready as usual or as much as I'd like.


And it is also our last challenge at Just Add Ink for the year. This week, Tina has a letter challenge to spark our creativity  - she has asked us to... Just Add...."N". There are lots of "N" ideas you could use from Navy coloured to a Nativity or Noel. Our lovely design team have all created wonderful cards to inspire you this week so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look. This challenge runs until January 4th to give you some time amongst the holiday's fesitivities to join and share with us :-)


I chose "Neutrals" and a "Noel" for my "N" items and made 2 cards!! I don't often use a lot of Crumbcake card and so this ended up being a true challenge for me but I like how well the copper and emerald green pop against it so I will make a few more of these instead of my usual white based creations. Now I'm left wondering why I didn't use them more before!

The "Noel" is embossed in Copper and the background has some Gold Wink of Stella flicked onto it. I've only recently worked out how to do this and it is quite easy when you know how like all things :-)   First make sure your pen's nib is full of ink, then place on the inside of the lid and the motion is that of doing a tick - like you are marking school homework and the more ink, the bigger the splatter will be.


The second card uses the same design, just real ribbons are added for some softness and texture instead of the die cut ones. Which one do you prefer? In both, the white spray is stamped in Versamark and then embossed onto the Crumbcake layer and the Noel in Copper. The only other colour comes from the die cut green leaves and on this one, the red and white twine.

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Emerald Envy, Copper Foil
Ink: Versamark
Stamps: Christmas Pines
Accessories: Big Shot, Pretty Pines Thinlits, Copper EP, White EP, Gold Wink of Stella, Burlap Ribbon, Candy Cane Lane Bakers Twine, White Perfect Accents, Mini Pinecones



I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see what the rest of the design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create using the letter "N" too :-)

Thanks for stopping by today and all throughout the year and a special thank you for all of you who have taken the time to leave comments. I love hearing from you and hope that you are inspired to make some cards too and I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and may 2017 be a wonderful year for you and all your family!!



Happy stamping until next time,

Jan



Friday 16 December 2016

Trees for JAI #341

Happy Friday to you and welcome! This week has simply flown. We are still struggling with no home phone or internet despite many phone calls to the local telco...so hopefully the fault will all be sorted out soon as it's been two weeks now and it's too long already.

Much happier news though is the new challenge at Just Add Ink this week. Kim has suggested a beautiful colour challenge for us all to use and it works so well for Christmas and all the last minute parcels and cards you may have to decorate. The lovely design team have all made wonderful creations to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look.

Here are the colours:

And here is my card:


The first idea that came to mind was to create Old Olive trees and the rest came from there. I've used trees from Santa's Sleigh and am wondering if the central tree is a little high but is a bit late now. For the background and to add details to the tree, I simply flicked on some Clear Wink of Stella to add a subtle Silver wink :-)


Card stock: Basic Grey, Whisper White, Old Olive
Ink: Old Olive, Versamark
Stamps: Santa's Sleigh, Christmas Pines
Accessories: Santa's Sleigh Framelits, White EP, Clear Wink of Stella, Basic Rhinestones, Silver Metallic Thread

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see the wonderful cards the team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create for this fun challenge too.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Monday 12 December 2016

Baby Love


Hello and welcome! Today I'm popping in to share a card made recently for a lovely friend to welcome her gorgeous little boy!
 Such a happy time and so wonderful to be able to celebrate his arrival with a special card :-)

 

This lovely background may just remind of the one in this card made for last week's Just add Ink"s sketch challenge and that is because it uses the same Distress Inks. This card was my first play with them - new baby, new technique - goes together rather well don't you think ;-)

What seems to me to be the key is to use Water colour paper and then the inks blend better and the water droplets show up a little better but they are quite small here ( first try so was a little shy with it) it might be easier to see in the next photo. I also flicked on some clear Wink of Stella - which gives some silver sparkle to go with the Sparkly jump suit. I have indeed fallen for these lovely inks - they make creating backgrounds very quick and easy!


The square was cut from the panel and then the "love" and tie were cut from the same panel before being layered onto layers of white card stock to give some height and help things stay secure in the mail too.

Card stock: Whisper White (Thick and standard), Basic Black, Water color paper, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter Paper
Inks: Versamark
Stamps: Sunshine Sayings, Made With Love
Accessories: Big Shot, Sunshine Wishes thinlits, Baby's First Framelits, Clear Wink of Stella

Non SU: Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint sketch
Sequins - Crystal Reflections SSS (these seem to go with the ink colours :-))

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you are enjoying the pre Christmas rush - today I'm catching with a some lovely friends for coffee before getting back to the Post Office with overseas mail for posting and then back to the craft room to make some more as time seems to be moving very quickly this year don't you think?

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan


Friday 9 December 2016

Gift Cards for JAI #340


Happy Friday to you and welcome  :-) It's been one of those weeks with someone nearby digging through phone lines so I am very relieved to finally have the Net back on. The 5 days without it felt liks so much longer and meant that I was writing this post earlier this week at a local shopping mall where they have free WiFi....so glad to now be able to update it a little at home :-)

With December now upon us, it's incredible to think that Christmas is just around the corner! This year, with a new house to decorate, there are a few adjustments to make - we have a little more living space so will need a few more bits and pieces...another excuse for a shopping excursion :-)


Talking of bits and pieces, this week's challenge at Just Add Ink should quite literally help you tie up some of the loose ends! This week's theme was suggested by me and it is that we Just Add... Gift Tags! Our lovely and talented team have all created fabulous gift tag ideas to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look and join us.


For the base of my gift tags, I used the lovely Hello December Project Life card collection.  Often, I will make a family Christmas card and so for the nieces and nephew to get their own card, a special gift tag is the answer :-)
These were relatively quick and easy to create. All with the same design and sentiment stamp and similar colours. And on the back... a little more stamping and room to write a message and name.




There is just a little detail (and sound!) added by tying on one of the lovely red bells just below the gold ribbon as this deer image was looking great on it's own. The little gold stars are from Santa's Sleigh Framelits and the sentiment is from The Merriest Tags set. Adding the stars with Glue Dots means they stand up a little more too. My BIL loves deer, so this one was always for him :-)


The same design idea was used here too - with a gold tree from the same Santa's Sleigh to go with the white printed one on the card and some green Enamel Shapes stars :-)


The wreath on this card was the perfect size to enclose the pretty silhouette on this simple Die from Penny Black too :-) To create some dimension, I cut one from each colour and simply layered the gold version on the top.

Card Stock: Emerald Envy, Gold Foil, Basic Black
Ink: Versamark
Stamps: Merriest Wishes
Acessories: Big Shot, Sanata's Sleigh Framelits, Gold EP,  Gold Metallic Thread, Mini Jingle Bells, In Colour Enamel Shapes, Bakers Twine Trio Pack (gold),Black Bakers Twine, Triple Banner Punch. Hello December Project Life Card pack

Non SU: Manger die, Penny Black

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the fabulous creations the team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing the Gift Tags that you are creating this week too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Friday 2 December 2016

Dashing Through the Snow for JAI #339

 
Hello and Happy first week of Summer - or Winter - whichever season it is for you :-) Here in Melbourne it definitely still feels more like Spring so far but they tell us we are in for a hot and dry Summer in the weeks and months ahead so we are looking forward to that :-)

And it's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink! This week, Narelle has designed this beautifully clean sketch for us all to use. Our lovely design team have all made amazing cards to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look!

Here's the sketch:


And here's my card:

Yes, I decided to flip the sketch to fit in these adorable reindeer! This is such a cute stamp set, the first thought I had when seeing it was of Rudolf dancing or "dashing" through the snow (whilst singing the song lol) so that is what I tried to create.

The background is created with Distress Inks - a first for me but I have fallen in love and and have decided to get a few more now after this first play!! They blend so quickly and easily on Water colour paper and I then added some flicks of water and Clear Wink of Stella and a sprinkle of sequins for a little more sparkle. Rudolf (in all his action shots) is coloured  with Copics :-)



And whilst I was trying out new things, I added some Glossy Accents - which seems to be a little thicker and perhaps clearer than our old Crystal Effects and gave him a lovely round shiny nose!! And to create the hills, I used last year's Sleigh Ride Thinlits and simply cut off the trees and houses that were part of the original scenes.



Card stock: Whisper White (thick and standard), Basic Black, Water Color paper
Inks: Versamark
Accessories: Big Shot, Sleigh Ride Thinlits (retired)White EP, Dimensionals, Snail

Non SU: Stamp: Lets Prance (Mama Elephant)
Inks: Distress Inks- Salty Ocean, Cracked Pistachio, Blueprint Sketch. Copic Markers.
Sequins- SSS

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and  see all the cards our lovely team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this week's sketch too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan


Friday 25 November 2016

Star of Watercolour for JAI #338


Happy Black Friday folks :-) No, It's not the 13th or related at all...but a huge world wide Sale day! I hope all those in the USA had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family - such a lovely reason to have a holiday - and are all ready for the sales due to happen just in time for Christmas!

And it's also time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink. This week's photo for us all to use was suggested by me:-) The lovely colours and brushes had me excited to water colour so I hope you enjoy this challenge and can take a moment to pop over and see the fabulous cards our team have made to inspire you too.
Here's the Photo:

And here's one of two cards:


For the background, I used a technique that Shelli Gardener shared at On Stage in Sydney where she used soon to be coming Watercolor Pencils (hip hip hooray!) to colour on watercolor paper and then spritzed the paper with water til the ink ran to create a soft look. 
As I don't have the Pencils, I used Zigs. But first, I embossed the sentiment in beautiful Copper :-)

Here's the before:

I recommend taping the paper down to a board so it stays as flat as possible :-)

And after spritzing and mopping a little with a paper towel...



Water colouring always dries lighter - here's the finished card (version 2).



To finish both cards, there is a sprinkling of embossed stars and some die cuts stars from the same Bundle both in the lovely Copper Foil and some vellum. I was going for a Northern Lights kind of effect so the first one is my favourite :-)

Card stock: Bermuda Bay, Copper Foil, Vellum, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Versamark
Stamps: Star of Light
Accessories: Big Shot, Starlight Thinlit Dies, Copper EP, Brights Enamel Shapes
Non SU: Stitched Rectangle Dies (SSS)
               Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers: Red Carmine, Cornflour Blue, Turquoise Green, Light                Blue, Violet

Well, I'm taking it easy the next few days having just had surgery for a jaw bone infection in an old wisdom tooth site where they scraped the bone etc....so I look forward to seeing what you will create for this fun colour and brush themed challenge at Just Add Ink this week and I hope you get a moment to check out our talented teams's lovely designs to inspire you too as they are amazing!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Friday 18 November 2016

Give Thanks for JAI #337


Happy Friday and welcome! Today, Spring has become Summer with our first 30 degree day in Melbourne since last Autumn. So lovely to see clear blue skies and finally feel a bit of heat :-)

And we have a great NEW challenge for you at Just Add Ink this week. Kim has suggested a challenge where you can Just Choose Two - of three options - to use in your paper crafting this week. Our lovely and talented design team have all created fabulous projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look.



For my card, I chose Die Cuts and Designer Paper. I needed another thank you card and wanted to use the saying "give thanks" and the rest came from there.  The leaves from Rose Garden are cut using Copper Foil - as is the "thanks" from the Hello You Framelits. And I've paper pieced the inserts from the different autumnal DSP colours...not that I am wishing Summer away btw, just the colours looked better with the lovely Copper :-)
The background stamping is an ombre effect created by simply stamping the lowest image at full strength and stamping off each time above.


Card stock: Whisper White (thick and standard), Copper Foil
Designer Series Paper: Rich Regals Stack (Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Calypso Coral)
Inks: Black Archival, Garden Green
Stamps: Labeller Alphabet, Timeless Textures
Accessories: Big Shot, Rose Garden Thinlits, Hello You Framelits, Metallic Sequins, Snail, Dimensionals, and Fine Tip Glue Pen


Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink  and see the wonderful cards our design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create this week too :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Friday 11 November 2016

Just A Note for JAI #336

Welcome and Happy Friday to you! We are settling into the new home and making some new routines. It is so peaceful here after moving from a busy road and we now get to welcome birds into our garden which is so lovely :-)

And also lovely is the new challenge at Just Add Ink this week. Nikki  has suggested a soft and elegant colour combo for us all to use and our lovely team have all created beautiful projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look!

Here are the colours:


And here is my card:


This is the first card made in the new craft room and I wanted to create a floral and leafy card to encourage a lovely friend back home in NZ.  Sadly, you can't quite see the shimmer to the flower from the Wink of Stella...One thing with everything being new is finding the best place to take photos - so still working on that  - and then of course remembering to take another view to show the layers before popping the card in the post ...(yes, I forgot!! ) but am sure will have it all worked out by next week :-)

Card stock: Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Mint Macaron
Ink: Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride, Night of Navy
Stamps: Flourishing Phrases
Accessories: BS,  Flourish Thinlits, Subtles Enamel Shapes, Clear Wink of Stella

This is a native Rosella feasting on the nectar on the flowers of one of our two red Callistomen (or Bottlebrush) trees. Isn't he gorgeous :-) 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop over to Just Add Ink and see the beautiful projects the design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with these pretty colours too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Friday 21 October 2016

Big Thank You for JAI #334

Hello and welcome! Well, the move has finally happened and we've just spent our first night in the new home. The strangest thing is waking up in the middle of the night a little disorientated and once we have realised where we are, needing to turn lights on to find our way. But it will soon become the new normal for sure :-) Sally is a little anxious about it all but we will be going back to the empty one today and that will help her work out that the new place is home now.

Also new today is the challenge at Just Add Ink where Di has suggested a photo filled with school shapes and letter ideas for our crafting this week. The design team have all created such fabulous and varied cards so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and join us.

Here is the photo:


And here is my card:


What first jumped out at me from the photo were the large letter stamps and different typography elements so it seemed the perfect time to bring out the large text stamp in Thankful thoughts. The swirly shaped flowers represent the other swirly shapes on the table and the colours and there is the Hardwood background for the table itself. With all involved in the move, and such at least one thank you card has been needed so is perfect timing too :-)


Card stock: Dapper Denim, Whisper White
Ink: Dapper Denim, Calypso Coral, Smoky Slate, Cucumber Crush
Stamps: Thankful Thoughts, Swirly Bird, Hardwood
Accessories: Big Shot, Swirly Scribbles Framelits, Basic Rhinestones
Non- SU: Stitched Rectangle Dies - Simon Says Stamp

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see the beautiful cards our lovely team has made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fabulous photo for inspiration too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan